Fruit-set patterns and burial mechanism for subterranean dispersal units of Ceratocarpus arenarius

doi:10.11686/cyxb20140242

Abstract

Abstract: Ceratocarpus arenarius is an annual desert plant in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang. It produces two clearly different types of fruits in aboveground and subterranean on the same plant. The main aims of this study was to investigate the phenology, fruit-set patterns and burial mechanism of the subterranean dispersal units of this species. Life history of C. arenarius is eight month. It has long cotyledon period, there are about 30 days. Blossoming and fruiting soon, and it has a long reproductive period, which accounts for 4/5 of the whole lifecycle. The subterranean dispersal units originate from two female flowers in the binate axils of the first node of the main stem. At the last ten-days of April, the two female flowers are pollinated on the ground; after bracts entirely concrete, the two subterranean fruits develop into underground in the middle ten days of June. The flowers of the subterranean dispersal units of C. arenarius have specificity due to it include only two flowers which are on the first node of the main stem. However, a number of aerial dispersal units on the leaf axil which forms a spherical shape. The subterranean dispersal units bury by both combinative dynamic of the “reversing” mode and passive mode by means of soil and sand brought by wind and rain. This fruiting traits are the adaptative strategies of C. arenarius to the unpredictable desert.

CLC Number:

Q948.1

WANG Xi-yong, GAO Rui, ZHOU Xiao-qing, WEI Yan. Fruit-set patterns and burial mechanism for subterranean dispersal units of Ceratocarpus arenarius[J]. Acta Prataculturae Sinica, 2014, 23(2): 352-357.

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